Orphic mysteries

The Orphic mysteries represented the esoteric teachings of one of the ancient Mystery religions of pre-Christian Greece. According to legend it was founded by the mythical poet and musician Orpheus, who descended to the realm of Hades, the god of the underworld, and by the sweetness of his music persuaded even Hades to allow him to bring back his dead wife Euridice to life, and, after failing to conduct her back to life by disobeying the warning of Hades to not look back, he himself returned from the realm of the dead.

Orphism (also rarely termed Orphicism, from Ancient Greek: Ὀρφικά Orphica) is a set of religious beliefs and practices associated with literature ascribed to Orpheus, who was said to have also invented the Mysteries of Dionysus, and who, afterward, during a celebration of those same Dionysian mysteries, was said to have been torn to pieces by his frenzied Maenads and then buried by the Muses at Mount Piera. His head was carried down the river Hebrus and drifted in the sea, until it reached the island of Lesbos, where it was buried. Knowledge and direct personal experience of initiation into the Orphic mysteries promised advantages in the afterlife, as in the Eleusinian mysteries, including a share in the knowledge and powers of the gods, and liberation from the prison of bodily existence. Poetry containing distinctly Orphic beliefs has been traced back to the 6th century B.C. or at least 5th century B.C.. Classical sources, such as Plato, refer to "Orpheus-initiators" (Ὀρφεοτελεσταί Orpheotelestai), and associated rites.

## See also[edit]

Gnosticism

Thelema

Christian mysteries

## External links[edit]

Orphic mysteries (timelessmyths.com)

Orphism (religion) - The Free Dictionary (thefreedictionary.com)

Orphism (religion) - Wikipedia

On the Orphic Mysteries, etc. (universaltheosophy.com)